get started this loud enough it's loud enough yes okay so uh again thank you all for coming um uh we're gonna have our presentation tonight for how we finished and how we uh performed against our 2023 budget a little glimpse into 2024 what we know so far um and uh myself and councilman habot who's a chair of the finance Comm we'll give the presentation if there are any questions at the end of the presentation we'll feel those questions answer best can I'll say this at the end as well um this presentation and this session tonight is being recorded by Ruben here for tv36 purposes uh in addition to that um this presentation will be on our website on our budget page after the presentation probably sparting by tomorrow and all along we have a email address for Budget uh which is at budget Westfield nj.gov uh that is pretty much up all year round but this time of year we do expect questions coming in so if someone you know can't be here if you have questions you think of after this you can feel free to email that web that email address and we will uh have a response for you so again I'm Jim Guild I'm a Town Administrator for the town of Westfield I'll introduce councilman havu to start off our our presentation here thank you Jim and thank you everybody for coming and hopefully people who will be watching this after tonight um this is a this is a fun night because um I think it's really important after we go through a whole budget process every year we tell people what we're going to be spending spending money on we go through this whole um very detailed um agenda of talking to all the Departments and putting everything together and then a lot of times in organizations you forget to report back to your constituents at the end and say okay so we told you we were going to spend the money this way and um then you forget to say well and actually we did and this is how it turned out um so this is the news tonight is really good so you'll see because I'm going to let um Jim uh give you a lot of the details about it but um the you know the main purpose of tonight is Jim said is to tell you you know who we are who are you know working on the budget um a little bit about what the process is um you know how the timetable works out and um you know and how the town you know performed really largely because of the amazing leadership that we have in Jim and his um um Team here in Westfield and um you know we will go from here into April to get the budget approved and then we'll be back here next January probably with Colder Weather than we have tonight so um is I don't know who's working with am I working at okay oh so the first slide I'm gonna just look at it with you um so J introduced himself um tonight he's our town ad min minator long time Town Administrator with as you can see um you know an incredible amount of experience putting budgets together but as I've learned in the last six years that I've worked on it um no year is the same that's what makes it fun and um Scott Olen who is our CFO also brings an incredible amount of experience to the table as we're looking at you know the challenges that we face you know from year to year um Heather Rey is here with us tonight in the second row Heather's our assistant Town Administrator also adding you know lots of experience into our process in formulating the budget and and you know it's always important for everyone to be reminded of the outside experts that we have working on the budget s Clooney who's our longtime auditor and roget McCarthy who acts as our bond Council so a lot of the numbers and results that you'll see tonight came from from a meeting that we had on uh Tuesday night with SLE Clooney as they have very efficiently put the numbers together um you know as we close the books out on 2023 um as Jim mentioned I'm Linda habgood I'm uh serving as a in my second term as a council person for the First Ward and I also chair the finance committee I have done that actually since I was elected to um this office David contracts serving is the vice chair of the committee this year he's also helped out on the finance committee for many years but is kind of returning from a break from it he's not here tonight unfortunately he's on a business trip um but we have two new members of the um finance committee Mike dagala who's in the front row and David kefir who's sitting next to him so I'd like to introduce them and then there are a number of members I see filtering in from the investment advisor ADV Council some new members I haven't met yet but I see Drew pecker I see Jason um Marcelo wolf um Mr Mike pinski is there anybody else here from the IAC oh I didn't see you come in Mia M and Morris and oh okay Mo nice to meet you we're gonna have a meeting after we're to talk about how the IAC is going to be helping us out this year so let's go on to the next slide so it's always good to have some grounding on um where the taxes go when we're talking about a municipal budget and I'm sure a lot of you have seen this um semblance of a pie chart in various pieces of mail that have shown up in your mailbox um it's always interesting to see how it all comes together the town collects as you can see a really big number over $186 million in 2023 um a lot of that gets allocated to other things outside of the municipality because as you can see in the lower leftand corner of all that money that's collected um the levy that the municipality puts on the taxpayers is only $31 million 26757 in 2023 um I get questions from people frequently because they say well how does you there's a $31 million tax levy but the municipal budget is um in 2023 was over $51 million so what's the difference and the difference is that that's the taxes that are put on property holders the $31 million the remainder of it over $20 million is um basically what the town brings in in other revenues um so cord and parking um are good examples of those things and um you know we have some one time you know revenue streams that come in on occasion but there's a a lot of work that goes into running this town um very efficiently and I think it's really interesting to look at the fact that um the taxpayer dollars that come in that we can really rely on are only the $31 Million number um if you go to the next slide th this is um a breakdown of the full budget appropriation so we don't have the number well we don't have a total on the number here but it gives you an idea of you know of that $51 million and the total budget how that's allocated for various things obviously the town of Westfield is a people business right there's um a lot of interaction with the public that needs to happen one of the things that um it happens every day is the public safety and the quality of life issues that people in the town are looking for and so it's not surprising that one of the bigger numbers in this overall breakdown would be salary and wages but I think it's also important as you look through this list to drop to the bottom to the statutory re re ired number that's even higher than that which are the expenses that the town has that we have no control over um things like the bill that the raway sewage Authority sends to us that we have to pay because they're providing a service to us and so there's a there's a big breakdown of you know what those numbers are but I always think it's interesting to see how this all you know comes together so as we go on to the next slide um there's 's a reminder at the top about how the 51 million 51.9 million total budget for 23 was broken down between the $31 million in the tax levy and the 20 million 20 plus million dollars in revenues from other sources and at this point I am um going to just uh hand over the mic to Jim to talk about some of the details but I at I I just want to say that um the even though the number is very small that the municipality receives and has at its discretion um there was an amazing number of things that we were able to accomplish this year it's this is a happy night um you know if we look at the number of roads that were paved um the num the amount of like new equipment that we invested in so that the dpw's more able to repair roads and um address things quickly for residents um we're constantly making in investments in the DPW so that they even now we can um create our own signs so we don't have to rely on an outside contractor to do those kinds of things um we had um one one of the big things this year that contributed to the revenue was something that was not anticipated we were able to sign an agreement with Westfield senior house um they came to us and asked us to extend their lease for the two buildings um that are on the south side and um we went through a long negotiation with them to figure out what that would look like but at the end of the day we were able to receive over a $3.6 million lump sum from them and a new 30-year contract that will more than double the revenue Vue that we'll be able to receive from um you know that um source of Housing and I think in the process we've also um been able to highlight some things that we continue to do for the seniors um as you know a celebrated um segment of our you know population in Westfield so as you go through you'll see all the other you know um you know great things that happen this year and um and then I'll kind of you know wrap up at the end with um a little bit of a preview on some of the priorities for 2024 and then hopefully we'll get to hear from all of you some things that you'd like to see us consider as we go through the rest of the budget process so Jim thank you very much Linda um so G to go back one slide just for one second and that is just as councilman Hava mentioned we're in the people business and this is represents the entire budget $51 million in change the Appropriations and excuse me um so the salary and wage portion you know for a corporation of our size and we are a business um to have 37% salary and wages most corporations have over 45 or 50% uh so just just another indication of how well we try to manage this treat our employees fairly but they're the ones doing the work police fire public works all the office staff who are serving the resence every day in the field and in the offices so I just always like to highlight that number it's it's actually a low percentage when for the size of a business that we run um okay so again we're still on 2023 just kind of uh wrapping up what we uh had anticipated in 23 again as councilman have good said 51 51.9 million budget 31 million tax supported 20 million uh eight as revenues that we generate on our own to support that budget so a couple of different things here you'll see we manag spending challenges in 2023 what do we do we statutory acquired expense up 6.75% bills given to us couldn't about it have to pay those bills was $1.2 Million that includes things like pensions health insurance Social Security utility raway value sewage Authority these are bills we get we have time Time payments and we have no choice to do that salary and wages up 3.1% $580,000 last year was a big year for us we actually successfully voluntarily negotiated and settled multiple contracts multi-year contracts for towns we have one only one uh contract that's not up for uh or sorry that's up for Renewal this year every other contract we have is good through 2025 or 2026 so now we have certainty in our budgeting going for from an employee perspective and lastly operating expenditures up 10% um various non-discretionary costs are part of that so even though they're not part of the statute required category um you'll you know the finance Comm sees um I use the police department for example with the fire department we have a lot of contracts with vendors that give us prices for you know fire truck maintenance that's a it's a very specialized field we have to do fire uh fire contracts that so those aren't even discretionary at all uh again Surplus we're going to talk a lot about that tonight 2023 Surplus story was um we had uh replenished uh 22 into 23 um $3.7 million for a starting balance of 9.3 million year end 2022 going into 23 we used 3.95 in 2023 uh and that we we have a process we go through to try to figure out what we're using it for we try to cover revenue losses uh increase expens expenditures but mostly to manage the final tax rate that's what the Surplus is there for and we do that so we increase the use of surplus last year by $200,000 and lastly um uh we we reserved after using that Surplus we reserved 5.4 million for future years and hoping to replenish back to 9 million that was our goal uh lastly lowest possible tax increase um again Appropriations R 5.46% last year for all the reasons we talked about um last year year and the year before were two years where we had AARP money the American Rescue plan act money every Community had that money we incorporated that into our budget both years that comes out in 2024 we plan for that we know that's happening um and we did it we used the money in a way it was up for onetime expenses so we knew we weren't going to be relying upon that more than two years that's a big reduction this year for us uh we had continued revenue losses and things like that from uh from various things since 2019 ultimately in 2023 delivered a 1.98% tax increase and the average tax increase over the years is 1.4% so even with all those challenges we're able to actually deliver a budget within the 2% tax rate required by the state so 2023 year end analysis um we had a very good year as councilman Hab good mentioned uh Surplus was replenished and we exceeded expectations considerably we actually now have a balance of 15.4 million in Surplus let me say that again 15 form and the reason is I've been working for this town for 30 years it's the highest Surplus ever uh this is I've been here and I think it might be the highest Surplus in the town's history uh that's important that gives us flexibility to do things obviously get back to the taxpayers tax rate issues as well as using that money to do other things road paving you know accelerated programs Etc so it's pretty significant uh uh that we have that money for flexibility we had substantial progress on regaining parking and Court revenues we've been talking about this for a number of years since covid we're getting very close to getting back to 2019 levels which is important those are two examples of revenues that were hurting from covid uh we continue to have uh good uh um experience in the building department Westfield is a town people like to do work on their homes uh basement kitchens Renovations back yard that all equals permit revenue and of course higher property value so that's a positive thing uh we also had a very good year I want to thank the CFO and councilman have good as the finance chair we really made a concerted effort this year it was a obviously much more favorable interest rate Market but we have limited things we can do with our money under State and and federal law but we're able to generate over $710,000 in interest on income this year uh interest on investments excuse me so that was pretty significant uh in addition to that capital budget goals um we've been talking about this we'll talk about it more as we go through the budget process and our Capital plan this year but last year we had a very another remarkable year 15 miles of Road paid in this town six by the town nine by the utilities um reminder that the ities uh now are required under ordinance if you cut into a roadway and are trenching for utility work mostly Elizabeth Town Gas sometimes American Water do this more than 50 feet you're required to pave the entire Road curb to curb end to end Cur blocks at a time that's generated um at this point I think over almost 18 19 miles of Road paid by utilities not at the town's expense and yet the town gets infrastructure improvements not only above ground where the paving is but they're improving their infrastructure Underground when they do that so that's very significant so overall 2023 year end was really a remarkable Year from revenue production um and we weathered 20 2020 through 2023 the covid years we'll call them uh in large part due to reserves healthy tax collections which we'll talk about and strategic budget decisions really trying to manage our Surplus use manage our costs and try to actually look in and find new Revenue so uh 2023 was a very very good year uh key fiscal accomplishments in 2023 uh again we mentioned construction Department $360,000 increase over anticipated numbers again permits are up thank you to Frank Roso and his crew Frank's are construction official just does an amazing job there uh we also automated a lot of things there since 2020 uh so covid had a positive effect on this department from automating things uh that was very good we continue to maintain our AAA Bond rating uh I know last year we reaffirmed that by going out to bond sale this year that wasn't required in 202 oh sorry 2022 we reaffirmed that 23 were not required to go to bond sale but uh we maintain that rating and only 8% of the municipalities in the state of New Jersey have a triaa rating so it's a very rare uh rare thing and it's hard to do uh under the regulations that municipalities have uh tax collection remained very strong we had a slight uptick in collections we're over we're usually over 99% but even a tenth of a percent makes a difference this year we're at 99.4% at the end of 2023 significant uh collection rate which is great interest on investments we just talked about thank you again Scott for managing the funds very aggressively and over $700,000 revenue and interest on investments and then lastly councilman havan mentioned it um we had a lot of very big significant Surplus increase part of that was due to the uh settlement we had uh with senior housing 3.65% 3.65 million just from that uh one um agreement which bolstered our Surplus uh and as she also mentioned in addition to the lump sum we'll have a revenue Source now increased for 30 years uh we can actually anticipate in each budget other things that increase the Surplus besides that were things like School tax deferral in uh increased anticipated revenues that were not expected uh and also some other things that we'll go into but again a really remarkable year in 2023 and and as our auditor told us on Tuesday night and the new members of council that were here for the first time uh these things normally don't happen all in one year usually one of them might happen and you're lucky we had four or five things happen at one time that normally don't happen almost ever so it was kind of everything usually you say everything comes together on the wrong WR way we had everything come together in the right way from a revenue perspective in 2023 uh and lastly um for 2023 uh just some achievements we mentioned the road paving we talked about interesting about road paving last year this time we were talking about our 2023 Road Assessment program being updated uh we had started that in 2019 we did update it in 2023 and since 2023 or sorry since 2019 we paid almost 75 miles of Road uh most of which have been paid by the utilities we're continuing that program 24 and we're going to actually try to do a uh publish a three-year list of road paving like we did a couple years ago so you'll see 24 25 and 26 of the town's Paving and then we'll post information about utility Paving once we get a coordinated efforts from them so pretty successful program um fire chiefs here tonight we actually increased fire Staffing it was over a two-year period so last year we added two new officers uh we added our first female officer by the way last year firefighter which is pretty significant um so two officers last year and we had other two we're looking at on this year bringing us back to four npers uh tours which is something we haven't had in many years and that's good for Public Safety in addition to that we uh fir Chief came in asking for extra equipment updating older equipment and actually redoing some facilities for our first fale firefighter and we're able to achieve all of that in 2023 which is significant so thank you Chief um continued improvements to Parks uh we had Windor Park enhancements we had phase two of Windor Park was finished this year new playgrounds new equipment um uh a lot of new renovation new fence around the whole complex uh midasin Park we had a play a fence around the playground there which we've been asked for for many years uh and of course tamaka Park we have what are called the upper bathrooms those are in talk was all time that's the tennis court bathrooms we also have the lower bathrooms of uh which are down by the picnic area which have been closed for many years we're able to go in there do some minor Renovations and reopen them um and that cost some money um continued investment in public safety items big thing we've talked about for a lot for a while 15 uh license plate readers lprs from last year we have 10 more are on order right now coming in and uh solar powered speed signs we actually have now I think 24 signs installed so we have two types of signs we use we have more permanent solar powered speed signs on roads we know there's actually speeding issues that are that sit there and they show you your speed they also collect data for us to know when we should be Target doing targeted enforcement excuse me targeted enforcement we also have portable speed signs we use when residents request something uh I think they're speeding on my street we can put them out check that street for a few weeks or a month and get back to them with data showing yes we need to do enforcement here or no the perception is different than reality but we have kind of two ways we do it which is important um we pursue one uh received $ 1.75 million in Grants highest amount of uh grants in town history in one calendar year tree planting continues 600 trees again uh for I think the second or third year in a row uh again staff is one of those important things I do we were able this year to finally um find a back to the full-time engineering model we had a consultant for two years he did a great job but for a town of our size and what we're doing here we really need a full-time person so Mike mcnell was appointed last year uh which we're very excited about new director public works if you weren't here last meeting uh council meeting uh we introduced we say goodbye to Greg O'Neal who was here for nine years we said hello to Craig Gibson who is internal promotion Craig is excellent and uh he's gonna be here for a long time and do a great job and a lot of key promotions in police and fire departments um as well as new hires so a lot of uh human resource issues this year which are very positive uh again continuing significant progress on downtown Redevelopment plans and mostly again we're delivering all of this um with uh a you know obviously lower than 2% tax increase barely over averaging over 1.4 over six years but again a remarkable year in 23 to come out of 23 with a surplus of 15.5 million just um we thought we well we did much better than we expected so a very good story to tell for 23 okay so 23 great news um you're only as good as your last budget so we're now we're already in the 24 okay so we start 24 budget and just a recap of what we do um and it's worked very well for many many years so we look at a few items um as we go through the process and our two new members of councel are learning this they had our first meeting on Tuesday with us which is great um so we always look at a long-term capital plan um we always we're required to submit to the state a six-year plan which we do uh we focus on three years that's very practical to um to manage so that is will be uh talked about in the next two months and we'll have an ordinance at some point which will include Paving uh police equipment Fire Equipment Public Works equipment any other Capital initiatives we have that'll be an ordinance that's adopted and then that ordinance when it's adopted gives its authorization to spend money for this year to get those things done uh while that's going on we have department head budget so we already started that process for a few months uh in the next few weeks the department heads will be coming into the finance committee to present their budgets and review things get questions answered by the committee uh that really takes place we've had a lot of work done this November December uh and just as Linda mentioned on Tuesday we had our annual meeting with the Auditors who came in on Tuesday gave the committee an update where we were how great we did uh also give us some advice for things that they recommend uh they had also finished the annual financial statement which is now completed that'll be submitted to the state there's a lot of statutory compliance we have that Scott and also the Auditors do every year that isn't really exciting to the public but it's very required behind the scenes so the finance committee uh started on Tuesday we'll be meeting with the Auditors which we did we'll meeting with department heads all the way through mid-march uh at that point the state gives us information about what our final state aid number is uh any other Revenue they might be providing us which is not that much from the state uh we then put together the budget forms the council will be presenting to the or sorry the committee will be presenting to the Council on March 12th so the council gets a full view of the budget that's being formulated the past number of of months and then the budget is expected to be adop introduced on March 26th and then adoption on April 30th these dates are not arbitrary the state gives every municipality a time frame uh if you do not meet these dates and go later than that you run the risk of losing state aid so again from a best practice perspective every town is required to submit a best practice checklist every year which we do we score very very well over 90 plus percent every single year this is part of the reason why we comply with the statutory time frames we do things in proper order and again thanks to Scott and his staff for doing all the things that uh paperwork and submissions online to the state so that's the process we follow uh for committee uh for um formulation again 2024 goals similar to previous years we always want to manage our fiscal management and fiscal expenditures um manage them very well very closely that does not just goes from me and Scott all the department heads we have many department heads here tonight Library director town clerk fire chief assistant administrator public information officer we have our CFO um and others uh that will um continue to maintain their Department's budgets it's their responsibility oversee their budget report back to myself or the CFO and so it's very we do a very detailed job every single month we meet monthly to make sure everyone has uh their up to date on things so that's important um again always looking for Revenue sources you saw on the initial slides we provide 20 plus million dollars of Revenue offset our our tax supportive budget um Revenue sources in municipalities not just Westfield are hard to come by and they're also hard to maintain so again it's not something we uh we find very often when we do we try to do it manage it properly and try to because every Revenue resource we get offsets the tax supportive budget um prioritize opportunities to increase diversify tax base this goes with new development coming in over time the the the shift it takes decades for this to happen the shift does happen going more to commercial properties potentially and off the backs of the actual single family homeowners and condos and town houses um again always prioritizing Public Safety downtown economic recovery infrastructure public amenities uh Etc arts and Parks um and then again tonight we'll obviously see if anyone questions tonight about the public input they may have for us to consider for 2024 um so a couple things we know about 2024 already um Scott and I get information starting in December for each Year's budget so we've already know that um the raway value sewage Authority Bill our pension Bill our health insurance and our joint Insurance Fund Bill our reserve for unced taxes and Debt Service all those together so far over $950,000 increase again as we mentioned before bills given to us we have deadlines to pay and um we have to manage those in our budget so um not easy things when you have a million dollars roughly handed to you from day one you haven't even started the budget process yet but that's how the process goes um one thing to mention on the insurance side um so I was to say this about we have health insurance and we have regular Insurance our umbrella insurance so we are a part of a joint Insurance Fund we were one of the charter members of the Suburban Municipal joint Insurance Fund uh we share Short Insurance costs with eight other towns we actually just added two to our to our group um that uh will help to defay costs over time uh but that's a great way for communities to share costs and so um you know everything for insurance that's not healthwise is under our umbrella so it's Auto liability employment practice cyber Insurance all those things are on one roof and uh we really have an excellent insurance company that actually works with us very well so it's one of those shared service things actually is very helpful to the town um also just we're always trying to manage the the cost of Residential Services uh you know we're in the people business so there's a cost to what we provide police and fire for example there's a cost to those employees the equipment uh those aren't going down they're only going up uh curbside leaf collection curbside recycling those are programs we run we serve costs don't go down they go up we have to rent trucks we have to dispose of material we have to uh pay companies to pick those things up so um we're always trying to manage those costs and this year we'll see how they pan out but um again those are the challenges we have are 24 which are similar to other years um again we also on Capital front um with the extra Surplus we have in the bank and well-managed Debt Service we have uh we can continue with a you know ambitious 2024 plan um and again road paving is one of the biggest things we do it's a very uh we're on Pace to really by 2026 hope hopefully have over almost 85% of our roads paved uh and then we'll be able to get the rest of them done in a short time thereafter um so that's a big thing and the utilities have been a big help to that uh drainage improvements is a big thing so as we go do road paving we're trying to add in drainage improvements uh specifically for storm water issues that we've been experiencing so we'll add that in as usual uh Recreation and park improvements uh will continue um uh and then Public Safety improvements and Equipment never stop as I said four we have lprs on order we're looking for more solar speed boxes and other technology last year for example in our capital budget we added a few intersection improvements um shortening crosswalks doing bump outs um doing striping doing cutouts for parking some of you go to the Westfield y you've seen the cutout there to create a drop off pickup area a little safer in front um so that people because we have people double parking all the time so hopefully that's uh something we will enhance that and Technology enhancements and the offices we have here we mentioned before the construction Department Department um we did some technology upgrades we continue to do that there but other offices the town clerk's office for example town clerk's here tonight a lot of our things in that office are online now uh and that actually makes easier for the resident rather now to come in in person and so forth so those are all the things we want to do in capital have we'll have a whole other um discussion at a future meeting about the ordinance that we introduce at some point probably March or April um budget opportunities for 2024 again we we have a larger fund balance to help navigate non-isr cost increases and also to also manage the final tax rate uh and we we'll talk more about that we'll we introduce the budget in March but we're in a very very good position which is really nice to be in uh we have a potential for our first pilot revenues to be received in 2024 this is from The westfi Crossing um project we don't have anything right now and probably won't be able to anticipate it in 2024's budget but we do expect a portion of that Revenue maybe to come in later this year which means in 2025 that'll be a new Revenue Source we can anticipate in some way don't know what it's going to exactly be right now but um that's an opportunity for Revenue in 202 24 and 2025 and Beyond and then uh again in 2024 Revenue projections right now look very strong we're still working through the budget process we're also adding ratables uh to the tallenge budget and think about ratables and and the committee knows this from talking to our assessor uh we do have some development going on in town as you know but most of our ratable increases are from single family home renovations um we are a very active Community doing renovations to their homes uh basements Outdoors Renovations tear rebuilds uh attics you know all kitchens bathrooms uh the majority historically the majority of ader ratables come from single family home permits and increased values which is a great thing for the town property value so uh this is important that people know that development doesn't hurt it but most of them come from the single family home opportunity so I'm gonna pass it back to Linda have good just to kind of wrap up here but again uh we're in very very good Financial condition um our Auditors who came in Tuesday uh they they work in many many many towns uh we are in great shape financially probably the best we've been in decades um and uh it's a good position to be in Municipal Finance is a very um weird uh Financial animal doesn't work the same as others you have a lot of statutory federal guidelines and compliance issues you have to deal with which are very complicated and sometimes don't make any sense yet we must comply uh but uh we're in a very good spot and uh and I'm as administrator I'm very happy to be in the spot we're in to continue to the residents as best we can so I'll just pass it back to Linda to finish up on this slide thanks so much thank you very much Jim um so and before we get to this slide I just wanted to um reiterate a couple of things that Jim mentioned because it um will impact the conversations that we have around setting the budget for this year obviously we had no um way of knowing when we set the budget um and approved it in April that we would end up um with a Sur Surplus as high as Jim just shared with you all over it's hard to even say over $15 million um you know over the years that I've been involved in this process we worked very hard to make sure that we find sort of a perfect sweet spot for that Surplus because it acts as a nest egg for the town you think about it as like your uh you know monies safety net monies in case something happens that you don't anticipate you want to make sure that you have um cash available to you we also use it as Jim mentioned you know as we get down to the final negot the final like telling on the budget to to keep the residential taxpayer monies down as much as we can because we don't want people leaving Westfield which we often see once their kids have finished in the high school they leave because the they feel the burd burden of the property taxes and not the benefit of the schools directly any longer and so we want to try to use those monies um to put them back into the pockets of the people who really you know initially contributed them so it's a balancing act every year to come up with what is the right number um the percentage of that Surplus number that will put back into the budget um we can use it for you know trying to bring residents um taxpayer burden down but we can also use it to invest in some things that can ultimately lead to new Revenue sources for us so you know take the Conservation Center as an example we've made a lot of Investments there you know over the last couple of years um it's I think a much better service to the community and we've also figured out some ways to provide services of people outside of the community where we can earn Revenue so those kinds of things you know we would really like to hear ideas from you all about how we can you know come up with other new future Revenue generating Investments that we can make particularly in this year when we have Surplus monies that are higher than you know what we thought we might have um so that will help in our capital budget planning for sure um so uh I think this slide is also important as a backdrop to asking the public for inputs on um budget um desires or comments for this year because it's a grounding in the priorities that um the town has for um really keeping a careful eye over the overall budget as you can see um from Jim's comments and the way that this town runs and the fact that we continue to have a AAA Bond rating this town has run exem extremely well and that is a priority um and will continue to be Public Safety um I'm sure you heard from the mayor's town of the state of the Town address the additional Investments that we'll make in public safety this year but we're always looking for feedback and inputs from you all um the town's you know Parks and Recreation um we're looking at ways to you know partner with the um you know with the school districts and the county to make make sure that we're doing all that we can to bring um improvements to the parks and uh make them as you know centers of um you know public Delight um and as you go we're obviously trying to continue to bring um better quality of life to our residents um to Foster to Foster resident engagement which we do through inviting people to participate in the you know committe commes and boards and create new councils like the I so I thank you all again the F new folks and continuing folks um on the IAC and then you know we um are going to continue to proactively manage responsible development because we know that the downtown is one of the priorities for everyone that lives here um and creating new public spaces and um being able to continue to revitalize those areas is a really big priority for us so um I think we can go to the next slide and um we're gon to handle this like we would in a normal council meeting so if anyone has any questions or comments that they would like to um you know add into the mix just you know please um state your name and your address and ask the questions and we'll uh Jim and I will do our best to answer the questions we have a couple other department heads here we have the library um uh director Allen's there we have our fire chief um uh you know a couple of other heads so we'll make sure that we get answers to you and then again for those of you who are not here tonight and might be watching this um later on that budget at Westfield nj.gov email address will leave open it's actually open all the time so in budget season and not if you ever have any um you know comments or uh requests to put in in the budget process so than just a reminder for those that weren't here in the beginning this presentation will will be on our website starting tomorrow so if you you know obviously I see people taking pictures feel free to take pictures but you don't have to it'll be on our website uh and um and again the budget address as well so uh anyone have any questions yes so car bonach 603 Lawrence Avenue so the question is uh of the $15.4 million of surplus that we have knowing that the 3.6 was a one-time um um I guess onetime Revenue to bolster that uh the question is how much do we if we know how much we would reserve for future years yeah well I'll start the answer councilman can can finish it I historically the past number of years the goal has been to um always get back to roughly 9.5 to10 million at the end of each year and we've been successfully doing that um obious obviously we did it much better in 23 know but but we know that part of it's a one-time shot um but that's kind of been the the policy of the council and the committee for years I don't add to that um it's it's not a really straightforward um question to answer because as we look at a current budget year and a following budget year um there are things we know um you know that will be happening um and things that we have to make um projections around but the idea is that we want to by the end of the year um get close to that n and a half or10 million um Surplus level um you know we also look at it as a percentage of the overall budget or you know just we have some different metrics that we use to see whether that's comfortable we're obviously talking to the rating agencies too because that you know we want to make sure that we're maintaining the um rating levels that we want and these are things that the rating agencies look at as well so there's not an exact number um but if you look I think the best way to um get an idea of how we're managing this is to know the target for the end of the year and then you can look over the past several years to see um in the budget what amount we've taken to um help keep the tax levy at a reasonable level sure just just to wrap up that one more time the one last thing is that as councilman hav good mentioned one thing that Scott and I look for particularly from a staffing perspective are we regenerating what we're using right so are we if we're using $3 million are we regenerating good news the past number of years except for 2020 which was a you know off year of everybody we are either re uh regenerating or very coming very close to what we're using uh and this year we far exceeded of course uh but that's always a good barometer as well because if you get into a situation where you're using and then you're not regenerating you that number can fall quickly so we're very conscious of that uh but we've been done very well past four years particularly even with Co being off year having a little less regeneration which was expected every year we've actually met we bring very close and this year far exceeded what we've used so that's what the rating agencies see and the Auditors look at too if are you are you regening what regenerating what you're using if you are you're in very good shape and we are so hopefully I answer your question no no so the question is uh same person question is um uh capital projects coming out that 15 million no Capital uh projects are are completely separate from the operating budget it comes in the operating budget in the form of Debt Service in a future year so for example this year the council will decide on a capital budget let's say off just off the top here includes Paving Public Works equipment Police and Fire Equipment and it equals $25 million the council will do an ordinance uh auth and and pass the ordinance for that those projects and that amount of money and that authorizes the town to spend that money um and then we will with regular cash flow continue to do the the pay those bills throughout the course of the year the following year the following budget year we have to decide do we need the full cash in our pocket have we done all the projects do we need to borrow uh you know for that money uh do we need to take a note out and so Debt Service on that bar of money 2.5 hits the following Year's budget in some form either in full through a bond sale or a note uh and that get so in municipalities unlike School boards for example we have a lot of uh different mechanisms to use to manage our debt service so we're not seeing huge spikes up or down we try to keep things very consistent so we we use notes we use Bond sales we do interest only payment sometimes to kind of manage that debt service and make make it flat and you'll see in the budget presentation we do in March we have a whole slide or two about Debt Service and what we're doing um and we we that's a it's a very big part of bond rating and managing debt uh managing of capital projects but bottom line is capital projects are separate from the annual operating budget the only impact on the budget is The Debt Service yes no uh the capital no the 15 million is never used for Capital it could be used to offset debt service for Capital that might have been authorized but no it's not a direct impact at all no yes any other questions yes name and address please okay for the audience Carrie Murphy what is the address again 502 County Road okay good sure sure yes so as I said before we we're fully aware that the 3.65 million was a one-time uh you know item so we're aware that um again each budget is its own puzzle I'll call it um so I we can't really say right now what the council's going ultimately decide to use in the budget but the past number of years uh the council has used anywhere between 3.3 to $3.9 million as Surplus use to offset uh or manage the tax rate offset uh required expenses we have we can't do anything about or to manage the final tax rate so to your question if we were to do very similar to we use last year that be the $3.9 million in Surplus that been the 15 down to 11 in change and that would be what left what's left over for 2024 uh 2025 excuse me and then we normally in a normal year forget the one time exp or onetime hit of a of a um agreement like that um we normally generate between two to3 million or more in a normal year um and this year we had other excesses that were not expected um but basically we're in a very good spot to use the similar amounts if we needed to this year and still have multi-million dollars extra in the in the Surplus as we move forward but every year is its own story its own challenges so uh nothing decided yet but in March when we introduce the budget we'll have a final number and you can obvious if you come back to the meeting then you'll see specifically what we're using and what's left over excuse me um so you mentioned uh the capital Improvement is drainage improvements Park improvements um all so there yeah so I can tell you so basically I I'm okay okay so just to the audience the question is uh things that are listed under the capital let's go to that slide real quick um capital budget slide um so drainage improvements recreation park improvements Public Safety improvements Equipment Technology enhancements I I've been working for the town for 30 years and every year some form of these go on in the capital now sometimes are larger projects sometimes they smaller these are not connected in any way to any development or any these are things the town is doing with its own infrastructure so drainage improvements for example um with all the storm water stuff we' been looking at the past few years with Ida um you know recently and so forth and big rainstorms when we do Paving projects we're actually going out to look under ground with our sewer camera and say okay why we're doing the paving project why the roads ripped up do we need to replace that storm sewer is is there a crack in it is something's wrong and we're adding those to the paving projects for example or Park improvements we mentioned a few before I think you were came in a little late um but we did a few minor Park improvements this year fencing around mkan playground okay so we did so but those things go on every year I think think um people like to see the very big project sometimes uh all the small stuff goes on every year in capital every single year public safety stuff every year as well um okay so the question is about the um Union County and and their plans for tamacas um so just to reiterate what uh was going on there I think it was a year and a half ago or thereabouts Union County is doing their own master plan of their parks and uh since they were spending money to do that the mayor requested that they consider adding um the newly um found what I'll call found seven acres of developable land in tacas that could be considered so they would pay for an analysis of that on their on their dime they did do that we have yet to see the final report they have an is sure the final report yet um but I will also say I think the mayor said this inter state of the Town address um there and I know Council Keers on the Recreation Commission they are beginning to work on forming a committee um to look at a design plan remember in our case we had a master plan done of all our parks in 2019 which was presented in 2020 right before the pandemic so you have a bit of a Baseline and recommendations in our plan the goal is to take that plan and those recommendations and then uh actually form a committee to look at Tom Parker as a whole plus the new s acre opportunity that might be there and look to do a design plan for that starting in 2024 but the count County hasn't released anything on their plan yet sure yes sir Steven Goodman 322 or Rend a circle and yes 40e resident and I taught his kids swimming lessons Okay sure I think you're right about that yes okay so the question for the public is uh that the school Bo board budget went up about 4.5% that's probably close um and um is our 1.4% part of that the answer is no so um every governmental entity we have four in town we have the Town Council who manages the 16% of your tax bill we have the school board who manages roughly 60% of your tax bill we have the library who manages about 2% of your tax bill and we have the county who manages about the remaining 24 or 23% so all this Town Council and my job is to manage a Town's portion so the 1.4% which really last year was 1.9% increase on the town's portion the county does their own the school does their own and the library does own and they're all put together for a combined rate and then that's what the taxpayers get in your tax bill and on your tax bill you'll see the breakdown of what you're paying for each piece but our portion the town council's only responsible for 16% of the tax bill I'm sorry I'll just add that even though those budgets are um established separate from the municipal budget that we're talking about tonight um it get it does get confusing because the town collects all those C taxes right for those various parties so um you know we show pie charts to help people understand but it's still confusing but even though we don't have direct impact over the budget for the schools to use your example Steve um we that doesn't mean that we aren't trying to work alongside of them to come up with um you know revenue or you know cost sharing opportunities um you know you know areas where we could you know help bring the total cost down between the two um institutions because that we all get the impacts of the school plus the municipal tax in what we pay sure that's all part of the budget process um no um so uh no cannot so um two things um so as I mentioned one of the slides before we think potentially we cannot anticipate in this year's budget we think the initial payments from West Crossing may start coming in later this year which means in 2025 we may be able to anticipate pilot revenue from that project which will be a revenue source of the budget don't know what the council is going to decide next year about how they're going to allocate that but um Town funds just like School funds or County funds cannot be comingled and offset another budget um process no only way Surplus can be actually used in our budget just like the school board has their own Surplus you must allocate it in that Year's budget to use it if you don't use it it sits there till the next year Surplus is basically cash you use it and it's it's liquid cash and it's gone okay well I I that did pass in Cranford I have a woman in my office woman in my office who lives in Cranford that passed yesterday from what I understand um and um again if the school board here in Westfield decides to do something like that that's a referendum vote um and if it does pass that's a school board budget impact um it does not impact the town's budget but it does impact the tax bill of course for everybody so while we the meaning why say we the Town Council Members and the staff don't have control of that budget of the Schoolboard budget uh it wouldn't affect our budget directly now I want to say something else though because I think the mayor has said this before I think Linda alluded to before um we have very good working relationships when I say we leave the politicians out of it for a minute all right the staff Scott myself other people we we work very well with the Schoolboard staff County staff of course Library staff those are the three entities that make every your tax bill so and I only say that for a reason because um we communicate about everything and that that's important and unfortunately it doesn't happen in every town sometimes school boards in town people don't talk to each other uh counties and towns don't talk to each other we don't have that issue here in Westfield second point is um we've already been talking to the schools about Capital needs what the town can do and we've been talking to them about in the future is that when pilot money comes into the town assuming all these development projects you've been talking about go through and pilot money actually comes in at the amounts that we're talking about then that money can be allocated for Capital costs in the schools and we have been talking about that we've asked them to begin the process a couple years away of course but we can talk to them and we can actually do that this for example in Woodbridge we know the Woodbridge mayor very well he was a former state employee he was a state treasurer he's very good at M Finance understands it very well and in Woodbridge they have I think over 20 pilot pilot programs that come in and produce Revenue in Woodbridge that's extreme of course but produces a lot of Revenue and they work very closely with the schools they're building new gyms renovating schools building new schools when needed with that pilot Revenue so the same thing can happen here when that time comes if that ever comes but right now you can't take budget money to budget money it's capital for future Capital needs sure overage in the budget what do you mean okay so um I guess arguably it could but the good news is that's not what our agreements say okay the agreements we've struck with one West Field Place if everything goes as planned um they have it's sequenced in a way that they cannot move to the next part of the project until Revenue comes in to pay off for certain things that we're getting so remember last year the town authorized $57 million worth of debt uh for public improvements that's not in this budget because we haven't paid anything yet not here when that does come to fruition the design plan is that the pilot money is supposed to not only cover but more than cover the debt service for those things so actually it should not impact our budget whatsoever U but to your other part of the question um in 2024 at least we're doing very very well and so if there was an overage of some sort if there was Surplus money the town could use it if it wanted to but the plan we have at one W of place is to actually have no taxpayer impact in our budget and have that completely covered by Pilot money for all the different improvements that they're making for us um okay so the question is about firehouse and including the budget so right now the firehouse is not part of one W place um but the fire but again pilot Revenue if it comes in the way it's supposed to as I said before we're supposed to have money not only to pay out the debt Ser but have money in excess okay and it could be quite a bit of excess and that's why this is an opportunity so we actually um the only thing we know for sure at this point is that we're moving forward with the Central Avenue of firehouse which is our Firehouse number two right and looking your Renovations is there because we own that property uh we can actually move forward with that and that's guaranteed we're still looking at we have Consultants looking at other opportunities for a satellite Firehouse to replace the headquarters okay but there a lot of parameters that have to be you know analyzed first before we can decide where that has to go you know response time is a big thing but that's but these are years away but in the meantime the excess revenue from pilots and or things in the budget will cover those um Debt Service expends when we get there as I mentioned to Mrs Bonacci before that would ultimately be a capital project for the town so the town would authorize Capital debt for that project and offset that debt in future years budgets with either money from the budget if we had it or excess revenue from other re Revenue sources namely the pilot sure I'm I just would like to add going back to something that we talked about at the beginning of this conversation since we have this Municipal tax levy up here and that's what the um property tax payers contribute to the budget the other portion of it is $20 million that comes from other Revenue pilot monies are other Revenue um so those are things that allow us to um you know think about um and have access to monies that enable new Firehouse projects and things like that so um if that just sort of distills down the answer to your question Mr Goodman well question okay um question Susan Goodman 332 we're in a circle uh I answered that question already so uh we are potentially getting pilot money in 2024 from The westfi Crossing project uh which is okay let me let me finish let me finish so that's started okay um and it will come in as each piece of the project gets it certific co certificate of occupancy when they get a COO and start occupying property that's when pilot payment start on each part so if we get it we don't know the amount will be yet because we don't know how much of a CO they're going to get um but ultimately that would been will be money over the course of the years that we will get there's a schedule that we have which tells us what the maximum should be and when that pilot money reaches what they call stabilization which is the full amount of pilot you get it's a 30-year pilot so over the course of 30 30 Years it'll start off slow but at some point it will stabilize and be a very similar increasing amount every year for 30 years that will be put into the other Revenue category that Council mhab has mentioned and can be used for anything the Town Council so chooses Debt Service other things in the budget no plan on what we're going to use it for right now but that is the truth about what how that can be used our concern as mayoun and build out ofon for to stay so concerned because retire we can't stay here because we don't believe you that the taxes will stabilized we don't believe you that our taxes and put us in aot get taes tral taxes why do you need a if you're doing so Wonder so that's all of that you're add and you're not and iots we know backed most of MOT not is there you're no you have a question okay I appreciate you appreciate no no no that's okay iion about I understand I understand I I I can't answer there's no question to answer I can't I'm not going to respond but that's your opinion I understand it any other questions thoughts concerns yes sir of it there yeah okay what's your name again okay mde okay and what street okay sis I uh am member of our IAC committee right IAC committee okay uh I think let me see if I got your questions right so um I'll start from the last first so the F last is uh sounded to me like it was a question about Capital planning putting money aside for Reserve infrastructure reserves is that that kind of what it's about so on that first topic yes we do that there's actually a line on in our budget called the capital Improvement fund it's part of our budget of a year um we put money aside in that to it's a multi uh line item but money aside every year for down payments on things I mentioned before about annual allotments for Paving for example but then in addition to that the Town Council on an annual basis can if it chooses put money aside for either long-term items as savings you know for future down payments and or can also put money in for oneoff projects on a year so I do a special project this year that cost $100,000 pick a number the town can say you know what put $100,000 in it's a onetime expense get that project done this calendar year and then that expense drops out next year so we actually planning for the future years budget about a reduction in expenditures all right so those are things we plan all the time and something we work with the Auditors and bond Council quite often with um in reference to the schools County and town collaborating there is no one um Guru for all the budgets that everyone talks to but we do talk to each other the mayor myself meet with the Board of Education pretty much every other month uh with the superintendent uh usually the uh chair of the board and the business administrator there sharing information about everything from uh School populations enrollment numbers what they're experiencing what we can do what we're experiencing how can we work together uh so we talk quite often the county as well uh we talk to the county uh as a matter of fact the new chairwoman of the County Board is from Westfield first time ever um so we have somebody who actually lives in town that actually has Westfield as a first priority which is wonderful for the town so we talk to them quite often and they actually have things they can do with us they have grant opportunities we apply for every year um so those are things we do all the time but there's not one one person that that plans everything it's all the entities working together and again you can't take annual budget money and shift it it has to be done through a capital process but the Isis planning that goes into that so right now as I mentioned before we've asked them to give us some information about their strategic plan as they get it finalized for future Capital needs and we can start planning on our own to see how we can help them with pilot revenue or other revenues we have for them so and that helps the ultimate taxpayer because the end of the day we all are managing separate pieces of a tax bill but it's all one tax bill so we can help them reduce costs and it actually is out of our pocket it doesn't increas our cost it helps the taxpayer have reduce cost in their pocket that's that kind of concept and when you have the first part of the question I missed what was the first part of the question yeah we can't we can't take yeah you can't take building permit for example a miscellaneous Revenue that comes in because that money so one last thing to say every Municipal budget is really a two-year budget so um we'll do the 2024 budget now and right now the 2023 budget which is finished is will not finished it'll be finished at the end of 24 because during the course of the year uh the CFO has up until March of each year to transfer funds to make sure we cover things and bills that are coming in after the year is over uh but then also sometimes there are things come in from a state and otherwise that come against our 23 budget so at the end of 23 any unspent or sorry at the end of 24 the balance of anything left over for 23 then gets turned over to the bottom line for 25 so every budget year is a one-year spend cycle one-ear weight cycle and then reverts back to the for the next year's budget so it's almost like a three-year window but so um Mis LS Revenue within the budget that's generated on an annual basis you really can't do anything with it till the year year after and that goes into Surplus again and then the Surplus has managed however the Town Council wants to do so hopefully that makes a little sense um I just want to reiterate what Jim was talking about in terms of you know these different um entities talking to one another because we are looking at ways that we can avoid duplicative costs where you know we can provide a service to the school district or the county could provide a service to the town so that we don't have that duplication um so even though we can't do what you said and take part of the municipal Revenue stream and allocate it directly toward the schools we're doing everything but that to make sure that because we recognize that we need to manage the overall tax bill for the residents we only have direct control over a portion of it but we're definitely trying to do things to manage the other um pieces of that Pi okay any questions yes every child every child thinks are the most important um so the question is from clar Bonacci Lawrence Avenue about um how do we prioritize projects uh and um how do we do that internally uh and and you're focusing on just operating budget or Capital yep yeah yeah so so we do have have two processes so the department heads come in to the committee uh they're presenting um their um their annual budget requests um they're presenting um any Capital requests um they will meet with myself and Heather and Scott the CFO first we kind of you know go through that stuff together um again as I said before on the capital side we have a six-year plan we focus on a three-year plan so we're not making it up each year we're focusing on what the plan is and seeing how the pieces fit into that every year so that's pretty straightforward proess but things do change um you know if we all of a sudden there's a drainage area we didn't know about last year now becomes a top priority that might move to the top of a list because it's something we have to fix right away we try to stick to the plan I'll use the Public Works equipment as a good example we have a multi-year public works equipment uh procurement and replacement program uh and the Public Works director comes and and recommends equipment uh gives details on a maintenance cost and then we decide what the best thing to do is is that can can that last another year that to be replaced what can we get out of it can we sell it all those different things um so from a capital perspective very good process department heads CFO myself and then of course the finance committee making recommendations to the Town Council for the capital budget similar process a little different but similar with the operating thing same thing um you know we'll have a chief come in and say hey I need two officers for these reasons explain the reasons why those reasons what will do does it increase overtime there's a decrease over time all these things are factored in the council ultimately has to make a decision is this something that we do and if we do this how is going to impact the tax rate that that that year so there's constant discussion between departments myself uh the finance committee and ultimately the Town Council uh and that's how you know the Behind These slides this slide here in all the little boxes that's how the sash is made for um for Westfield but I will say as and councilman have good said before um town and I think you all know this that are here and on TV but Town's very fortunate we have excellent department heads we have excellent people who care about the town some of us I know police our fire chief our police chief myself we're all graduates Westville High School different years I'm a little bit older uh but um uh we really you know care about the town Beyond just working here so it's it's important for the residents to know that every department head whether they live here or not is um we have dedicated people dedicated employees and and that makes a difference when you're having these discussions there you know sometimes you're not dedicated you don't care about it might make some recommendations in the budget you might not be here next year I don't care it doesn't happen in Westfield so our process is very thorough and very very successful for year so hope answer your question that's honestly why we're having this meeting because not only did the ideas around things that we should spend money on come from department heads or from just amortization or depreciation of assets that we already own they come from you know the residents so that's why we have a meeting like this because we want to hear what is on people's minds as we're starting to not only formulate this year's budget but every year we go back and look at that long-term um capital budget as well so questions yes sure car Murphy yet for for okay okay no um it's a lot of question to repeat um but let me uh let me just say a few words about that so those are not really budget questions about this budget um but um yeah yeah so a couple things so in reference to the Firehouse I just want to make it clear to the public and everyone who's in the room here the firehouse process for a new Firehouse started well before oneel Hill Place um actually started in 2015 with the former Chief Kelly and myself uh had nothing to do with one lill place or development has to do with the actual way the firehouse is set up today is not conducive to Modern firefighting and that's both of our fire wouse and that's common in many places in the state of New Jersey and around the country um so this process started in 2015 um the reason is not done yet is because when 20189 came and well West place or not then but there was a possibility of some development uh that might be beneficial uh to the Firehouse area this Nam North Side Plaza that Paul just put on to say you know what there may be some Revenue opportunity here to offset some of the town's cost for a new Firehouse or renovations to the Firehouse but that process started long before that because ultimately no matter what happens in one M place or when that actually happens we have to provide the firefighters in our town proper you proper and proper apparatus so that's that's one thing but in reference to your question about the money um so understood so the question is about money going to study traffic impacts or impacts of the development to the town yeah so um there's no money in this budget specifically for that purpose for all the developments you're talking about but it doesn't really work that way so each development um each project on its own each project that might come up for approval whether it be the town or mostly the planning board uh depending on the nature of the project depending on the size of the project what's required they go to the planning board to be heard uh to present traffic data if necessary to prevent uh to present uh School impact data if necessary um so those are things that are handled that way if there's if there is information or impacts that come from that um it might trickle down to hear some sometime in the future but that's not something directly impact on this budget um or or maybe future budget right now so the question about whether we're including money in this budget right now as of today we're not but your request is duly noted and we'll actually bring it up in committee to see if we want to actually consider that this year yeah yeah okay yeah so the request is for a cumulative impact study be considered in the 2024 budget Andor capital budget understood y okay okay got through re question okay thank you any other questions well that's again it's part of the budget process is laid out right here so if indeed the council decides to include money for that that that would be included in the budget where capital budget which wouldn't be approved until April 30th um I I can't answer that question here that's really um you know Town Council and planning board issue yeah and well you know yeah okay that's fine no I appreciate your your comments any other questions or thoughts answers anything okay well again I just want to say thank you for coming and attending in person uh budget stuff is exciting for us maybe not exciting for other people but it's very exciting um and um and again we are in a very good spot for 2024 which is great and I appreciate those watching online or excuse me on on on the camera when you watch it um and it's a reminder um the uh the last slide here that we have the budget address if you have questions uh feel free to email us and uh appreciate everyone coming today thank you very much